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With fresh financing and a rig en route, Margaret Lake Diamonds TSXV:DIA has drilling about to begin on its namesake project in the Northwest Territories. As with any outfit in similar circumstances, the company’s optimism has been buoyed by the performance of an illustrious neighbour, in this case Kennady Diamonds. But more objective encouragement comes from the extensive geophysics that determined the targets for Margaret Lake’s maiden drill program. Additionally, the project operator will be the same group that helped deliver success to Kennady.

“Aurora Geosciences acts as project operator for us and also for Kennady,” points out Margaret Lake president/CEO Paul Brockington. “So we’re using the same people who have done all the Kennady work for the last six years.”

Public tribute came to Yellowknife-based Aurora at Mines & Money London 2016, when Kennady co-won (with NexGen Energy TSX:NXE) the Exploration Company of the Year award. Noting that Aurora had designed and carried out all of the property’s exploration since 2012, Kennady president/CEO Rory Moore said, “Gary Vivian, [then president, now chairperson of Aurora], and Chris Hrkac, [Aurora’s] senior project manager for the Kennady North project, together with their team deserve the lion’s share of credit for the successes that Kennady has enjoyed to date. Their innovative, systematic and dedicated approach to a technically challenging project has resulted in new and unique discoveries, and earned Aurora the respect of its peers in the industry.”

A further testament to their work came just last month as Mountain Province Diamonds TSX:MPVD closed its acquisition of Kennady in an all-share deal valued at $176 million. An MOU between Mountain Province and De Beers considers incorporating Kennady North into the joint venture that comprises their Gahcho Kué mine.

The 23,199-hectare Margaret Lake property sits about nine kilometres north of Gahcho Kué and two kilometres northwest of Kennady North’s Kelvin and Faraday deposits. The Gahcho Kué winter road passes through Margaret Lake.

Aurora’s participation in the project will be nothing new. The company ran the geophysics that brought Margaret Lake to the drill-ready stage and Aurora will return very shortly, this time with a rig. Financing will begin with a $495,000 first tranche that Margaret Lake closed last month, out of a private placement offered up to $2.2 million.

Results from airborne and ground EM, along with airborne gravity/gradiometry pioneered by BHP Billiton NYSE:BHP, show six initial targets. Each features either a gravity low, a bedrock conductor or both, possibly indicating kimberlite. “Our first objective is to see if these targets represent kimberlite and, if they do, the objective then would be to get sufficient kimberlite to analyze it for microdiamonds and indicator minerals,” Brockington explains. “We’ll try to drill as much as we can before spring break-up.”

But while encouraged by his successful neighbour, he’s not basking in reflected glory. Margaret Lake is “a science project,” Brockington emphasizes. “We’re very much relying on these gravity/EM anomalies to help us deliver the goods.”

It’s very clear that when De Beers was there they did not recognize all the kimberlite. They were drilling mag targets but we went in and did ground gravity and EM, and we can see other targets that very strongly suggest more kimberlite.—Paul Brockington, president/CEO of Margaret Lake Diamonds

Farther north, in the Lac de Gras field hosting the NWT’s Ekati and Diavik diamond mines, Margaret Lake also has work planned for Diagras, where the company holds a 60% stake in a JV with 40% partner Arctic Star Exploration TSXV:ADD. This property hosts 13 kimberlites found by De Beers in the 1990s. Brockington thinks there’s more to be found.

“It’s very clear that when De Beers was there they did not recognize all the kimberlite,” he says. “They were drilling mag targets but we went in and did ground gravity and EM, and we can see other targets that very strongly suggest more kimberlite. We’re definitely going to do more geophysics there in the next few weeks. We hope to get a ground program going to look at other areas that weren’t covered in last year’s program and I think we’ll have a number of drill targets.”

The winter road to Diavik passes through the northwest corner of the 18,699-hectare property.

Looking forward to a busy and prospective period, Brockington says, “We’ve got a lot coming up and, when you look at the activity in the diamond patch, I think we’ve got about as much as anyone.”